


love knows not what time is

by chimerical_kid



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-09 14:39:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19477972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chimerical_kid/pseuds/chimerical_kid
Summary: Yang has been staring at her watch for years, considers abandoning it, but finds salvation in golden eyes.





	love knows not what time is

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!!! This is the first bee fic I've ever written because I'm so in love with them!!! Soulmate excellency :)

Two steps out, ankles bathed in salt and sand, sounds of seagulls and breaking waves engulfing her -- it's exactly where Yang needed to be. The stark silver of the sea foam reminded her of Ruby's eyes, ever present and constantly shifting. With a sharp intake of breath, expanding her lungs to their fullest capacity before slowly releasing, Yang raised the watch adorning her wrist to her eyes. Golden hands ticked against purple lines, always five hours ahead.

Yang had half a mind to throw the timepiece into the sea. To let the water and the seaweed infect its cogs and stall the seconds, burying itself between coral and anemone. What stops her is the hope that her soulmate's time would suddenly become her own; the hands ticking forward would suddenly turn back, matching her pace and beat.

Yang had worn the watch since she first received it on her thirteenth birthday. Receiving a watch was the ultimate coming-of-age. The clock revealed what time it was wherever one's soulmate resided. At first, Yang was ecstatic. She constantly heard stories from her father about when he got his watch, meeting Summer, and the like. It happened in school, he would say, a sorrowful smile shifting his laugh lines.

When Yang first saw the time on her watch, she was confused. It was nowhere near the time in Patch, in Vale.

Menagerie, Tai said, they could be faunus. Yang's excitement wracked her ribs with longing. She was falling in love at such a young age, at such an inconvenient time, one totally different from the watch. She'd spend hours awake, staring at the methodical turning of hands, gold reflecting off the moonlight. When it got late, two or three in the morning, Yang would start to wonder. A storm rolled in, questions thundering with a need to be answered. Are they waking up right now? What do they eat for breakfast? What color are their eyes?

A more terrifying thought, one that struck like lightning in her storm, occurred to her at fifteen, Ruby close to receiving her own watch. 

I hope it's a girl.

There was nothing unusual about the wish, not at all. People had preferences. Nevertheless, it sent Yang flying. She woke up in a cold sweat without being asleep, a funny feeling pooling in her stomach. Up until that point, she always pictured her soulmate as being male, settling like a weight on her shoulders, a frown cracking her smile. When she thought about her soulmate, despite her wanting and craving that connection, the thought of a boy left her throat dry with an unpleasant taste lingering on her tongue. 

It doesn't have to be a boy, Ruby had told her, childhood innocence pouring out. Yang knew, she knew. Dread crawled into parts of her heart she didn't know were there.

She hopes it will be a girl.

Yang stood on the beach, watching the minutes fly by. Her skin started to prune at her feet. In a few days, Yang and Ruby would be at Beacon Academy. She was elated, not only for the experience of becoming a huntress, but also the fact that Ruby, her baby sister, was going to be with her.

Ruby never spent much time looking at her watch. The hours were in time with her own, Atlas or Vale, and she would glance at the white piece, crimson hands, just to check if she was running late.

Yang couldn't help but be slightly envious. Her own soulmate was hours away, hours ahead. Of course, through the years, there were times when the hands would shift, her soulmate getting closer before returning to its original state. Those times would send Yang's heart racing for days. They're closer this time. When the hands returned to five hours in front of Yang, there was a deflation in her stance, the spring in her step abandoned, that did not go unnoticed. She tried to hide it with a peppy smile to no avail.

I could let it go, Yang's conscious yelled as she dangled the watch over the waves. She tilted her head to stare, the sun rising behind it, and her blonde hair fell over her shoulders like a landslide. It was then she noticed the hands starting to slowly turn themselves back. Her soulmate was coming closer. She took a few wobbly steps back, out of the water that was turning warm in the growing light.

Yang cradled the watch in her hands. Finally looking up, seeing the sun crest the horizon in front of her, she felt a surge of confidence. A symbol of hope, urging her to press forward. She was going to find them this time.

Two days passed and Ruby and Yang were en route to Beacon. Every so often she'd check the watch, to see if anything had changed. But it was still as concrete as ever, the hands staying in time with Yang. She tried to bite back her smile, but with some prodding from Ruby, let it expand, dominating the airship with its bright intensity.

Upon landing, Yang broke away from Ruby, telling her to make friends. The insinuation wasn't lost on Ruby. Her soulmate could be here too, for all she knew. 

"Yang don't leave me!" She heard Ruby cry. Yang let a laugh bubble out of her chest. 

Yang took in the sights of Beacon. The courtyard, the grand entrance, the dining hall. She also scanned the faces of the people around her, desperately searching for the one. Yang eventually let it be for the day, resolving to let the excitement of the Academy take over. That didn't stop her eyes from wandering to the watch every now and then.

Settling in for the night, Yang made an offhand joke about all the boys in the room, resulting in an eye roll from Ruby, the girl still babbling about the unbelievable encounter that went down in the courtyard with the most insufferable person she'd ever met, and yet there was something about her that made Ruby's heart skip.

And then, Ruby pointed out her saviour. A girl, sitting against the wall opposite of where they had set down their bedding. Yang's lips curled upwards. She was dressed down, a black night robe, equally black hair and bow crowning it. She looked like a mysterious storm cloud, one that would pass through Yang's head on all those late nights. Her eyes drifted across the pages of her book and lifted up to catch Yang's gaze.

All Yang saw was gold. Suddenly, everything around her got dark, like stadium lights shutting down and sputtering off. The buzz was cut, noise unessential in this moment. Instead, a single spotlight cast golden rays, the only thing left was this girl.

Yang's heart cried and tugged, it's her! Her watch seared against her skin, feeling like it was ticking at a mile a minute, matching Yang's heartbeat. Golden eyes caught lavender once more, melting. 

Ruby was there, an anchor back to reality and Yang gripped her arm, dragging her over to her.

"Blake." She said, slightly apprehensive but letting herself feel something, everything, in wake of yellow and lilac, staring down at her with a radiant smile. Almost infectious, Blake thought as her lips threatened to quirk.

"Well, Blake, I'm Yang!"

Somehow, that was all it took. Blake fell into Yang's storm, clouds parting with her touch, sun shining, flowers blooming. Yang did the same for her. They stood in a garden they created, together, eyes meeting under the shade of an old tree that brought the question: has it always been there?

And yet, they still had plenty of time ahead of them. That was good enough for Yang.

"It's funny," Yang said, in a spare moment of peace where they found the two of them alone, Ruby and Weiss off somewhere pretending to not be hopelessly in love, "There was a time when I thought about giving up, giving you up."

"What changed?" Blake asked, eyes and ears curious. Yang smiled, curling her hand over Blake's.

"Time went backwards, and then I saw you."

…

"That was so cliché, you nerd."

"That's what they say in all your books!"


End file.
